Splenic torsion in the presence of renal agenesis

A 14-year-old male with left renal agenesis presented with a history of intermittent abdominal pain for over 1 year. At laparotomy, the cause was found to be splenic torsion. The case is presented with a literature review. A theory of the cause is also presented based on the regional anatomy and embryology.     

Inflammatory pseudotumors of the lung

Two unusual cases of inflammatory pseudotumors in young female patients are described. One presented with massive hemoptysis and a solitary circumscribed mass treated with urgent lobectomy. The second presented initially with cough and a small right lower lobe mass. She presented again, 8 years later, with a lung mass so expanded as to necessitate a pneumonectomy with partial resection of surrounding structures. Both cases indicate the need for early and complete removal of the inflammatory pseudotumors.     

Spatial processing and hemispheric asymmetry. Contributions of the transient/magnocellular visual system

Right-handed observers were presented with stimuli consisting of a line and two horizontally separated dots. A categorical spatial task required observers to indicate whether the dots were above or below the line, and a coordinate spatial task required observers to indicate whether the line could fit into the space between the two dots. For the coordinate task, reaction time was faster when the stimuli were presented to the left visual field (right hemisphere) than when the stimuli were presented to the right visual field (left hemisphere). The opposite hemispheric asymmetry was obtained for the categorical task. In addition, coordinate spatial processing took longer with stimuli presented on a red background than with stimuli presented on a green background. The opposite hemispheric asymmetry was obtained for the categorical task. In addition, coordinate spatial processing took longer with stimuli presented on a red background than with stimuli presented on a green background. The opposite trend characterized categorical spatial processing. Because the color red attenuates processing in the transient/magnocellular visual pathway, these results suggest that coordinate spatial processing is more dependent on the transient/magnocellular pathway than is categorical spatial processing. However, manipulations of color condition had no effect on visual field (hemispheric) asymmetries, suggesting that the two hemispheres rely on the same visual information and on the same computational mechanisms as each other-although they do not always use that information with equal efficiency.     

Suffix interference in the recall of linguistically coherent speech.

In Exp 1, definitions of low-frequency words were presented for on-line written recall. Each definition was followed by a nonword speech suffix presented in the same voice as the definition, the same nonword presented in a different voice, or a tone. There was a significant reduction in the recall of the terminal words of the definitions in the speech suffix conditions compared with the tone control. This pattern was replicated in Exp 2, in which Ss did not begin their recall until the suffix item or tone was presented, although the magnitude of the suffix effect was reduced in this experiment. In Exp 3, the suffix effect was considerably reduced compared with the suffix effect found with the definitions presented in Exps 1 and 2. This pattern was replicated in Exp 4, in which Ss did not begin their recall of the story sentences until the speech suffix or tone was presented. Results suggest that auditory memory interference can take place for linguistically coherent speech, although the magnitude of the interference decreases as one increases the level of linguistic structure in the to-be-recalled materials. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transient leukemia followed by megakaryoblastic leukemia in a child with mosaic Down syndrome

A case is presented of a child with mosaic Down syndrome, who presented at birth with a transient leukemia and later progressed to megakaryoblastic leukemia. Evidence is presented that both leukemias were of megakaryoblastic lineage and evolved from a trisomic hematopoietic precursor. This case is unique in the poor course of the initial transient neonatal leukemia with improvement following chemotherapy. It also highlights the form of leukemia and associated myelodysplasia that occurs in children with Down syndrome. This form of leukemia and transient leukemia are interrelated and are unique to children with Down syndrome.     

The mnemonic value of perceptual identification.

In four experiments, subjects were required to name words presented on a CRT screen. On generate trials, the words were presented quickly, at a point where roughly half could be identified correctly; on read trials, the items were presented for a full second, allowing for rapid and easy naming. A surprise recognition test for the presented items then revealed a substantial retention advantage for the briefly presented items, but no similar advantage was produced in recall. It is argued that under rapid viewing conditions subjects may fail to extract enough visual features to allow for immediate resolution, requiring the initiation of a kind of data-driven generation process. This latter process then produces a generation effect for the briefly presented items compared with the read items, but only on a retention test that shows sensitivity to data-driven processing. These results are discussed from the standpoint of current theoretical views on the generation effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intralobar pulmonary sequestration: a clinical and pathological spectrum

Pulmonary sequestration is a mass of abnormal pulmonary tissue that does not communicate with the tracheobronchial tree and is supplied by an anomalous systemic artery. Whereas extralobar sequestration is clearly congenital, intralobar sequestration, which frequently presents in older children with pathological findings showing acute and chronic inflammation, may have an acquired origin secondary to frequent infections. Several large autopsy series support an acquired etiology of intralobar sequestration. Four cases of intralobar sequestration are presented that demonstrate a spectrum of inflammatory change that support its congenital, rather than acquired origin. Case 1 was a newborn who presented with tachypnea and a right lower lobe density. Resection at 3 weeks of age showed no inflammation in the sequestration specimen. Case 2 presented as a newborn infant with congestive heart failure. Pulmonary sequestration was confirmed by arteriogram. Resection at 3 months of age showed chronic inflammation. Case 3 presented at 7 months of age with chronic pneumonia. The resected specimen demonstrated moderately severe acute and chronic inflammation. Case 4 presented as a 6 year old. The operative specimen showed extensive bronchiectatic changes with marked acute and chronic inflammation. These cases support the congenital origin of intralobar sequestration and suggest a temporal progression from no inflammation to severe acute and chronic inflammation.     

Interosseous muscles in claw finger

The amenorrhea-galactorrhea syndrome which occurs at a time other than the post-partum period is most often seen in association with a tumor of the pituitary gland; the symptoms are caused by a hypersecretion of prolactin. Among a series of 19 patients in Tel Aviv who underwent surgery for treatment of pituitary tumors, 2 presented with the amenorrhea-galactorrhea syndrome. The first patient, a 16 year old, presented with headaches, nausea, and diplopia; she underwent a series of 3 surgical procedures and died of a respiratory arrest in the third post-operative period. The second patient was a 39 year old woman who had borne 5 children; she presented with loss of vision, underwent surgery, and did well post-operatively. The authors point out that whereas either amenorrhea or galactorrhea alone may be associated with a number of disorders, the combination of the two symptoms is characteristic of pituitary tumors. Both patients who were presented in this article had chromophobe adenomas of the pituitary. The authors also discuss the various biologic actions of prolactin and its interrelationships with other hormones.     

Fibrinogen/fibrin and fibronectin in the dentin-pulp complex after cavity preparation in rat molars

BACKGROUND: Placental site trophoblastic tumor (PSTT) is a rare neoplasm of intermediate trophoblastic cells of the placenta. There is a wide range of biologic behavior, with metastases occurring in about 15% of cases. Cases with metastases have all presented with abnormal vaginal bleeding or gynecological symptoms. METHODS: We describe a 31-year-old G3P3003 woman who presented with several alopecic patches resembling alopecia areata, which on biopsy proved to be metastatic, previously unsuspected, PSTT. CONCLUSIONS: This represents the first case in which PSTT presented initially with metastases, and specifically, with cutaneous metastases. A new primary tumor source of alopecia neoplastica is presented. The role of mitotic counts in predicting prognosis in PSTT is supported. Alopecia areata was mimicked very closely. Dermatologists should be alert to any features atypical of alopecia areata, including erythema, induration, or palpability, and maintain a low threshold for biopsy in atypical cases.     

MOUSE-III: learning rules of conformational analysis from X-ray data

MOUSE-III is learning program that finds rules of conformational analysis from raw crystallographic data. The program perceives molecular features, finds conformational classes in the data and then learns rules that link features to classes. The rules that MOUSE learns are capable of correctly assigning conformations to ring systems that were not used for training with greater than 95% accuracy, when MOUSE was presented with sufficient data. The rules also show a compression of as much as 99% when compared to the raw data. This is accomplished through abstraction and generalization. The algorithm is presented along with a carefully worked example. An example of a learned rule is also presented and analyzed. Some conclusions about the scope and limitations of the learning process are presented.     

Short-term memory for simultaneously presented visual and auditory signals in the pigeon.

Conducted 3 divided-attention experiments with 8 adult Silver King pigeons, in which matching to the visual or auditory component of a tone–light compound was compared with matching to visual or auditory elements as sample stimuli, to investigate Ss' short-term memory for simultaneously presented visual and auditory signals. In 0-sec delayed and simultaneous matching procedures, Ss were able to match visual signals equally well when presented alone or with a tone. Tones were matched at a substantially lower level of accuracy when presented with light signals than when presented as elements. The interfering effect of a signal light on tone matching was not related to the signaling value of the light, and the prior presentation of light proactively interfered with auditory delayed matching. Findings indicate a divided-attention process in which auditory processing is strongly inhibited in the presence of visual signals. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Representation-mediated overshadowing and potentiation of conditioned aversions.

Examined the ability of CS-evoked representations of flavored substances to modulate the conditioning of LiCl-based aversions to simultaneously presented flavors or odors. In Exps I–III, 156 thirsty Sprague-Dawley rats first received pairings of an auditory CS with a flavored-water UCS; they then received pairings of a compound stimulus with a toxin. Exp IV examined the potentiation of aversion conditioning to a novel odor using 32 Ss. In Exp I, conditioning of a flavor was partially overshadowed when it was presented in compound with a tone that had been previously paired with another flavor. Exp II replicated that result and also found that conditioning to a flavor was not overshadowed when the flavor was presented in compound with a tone that had been paired with that same flavored substance. In Exps III and IV, conditioning to an odor stimulus was potentiated when it was presented in compound with either a tone or another odor that had been previously paired with a flavor stimulus. Results suggest that evoked representations of stimuli may substitute for those events themselves in a variety of associative functions. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Irrigation Scheduling. I: Integer Programming Approach

This paper shows how a sequential irrigation schedule for a tertiary unit can be interpreted as a single machine scheduling problem with earliness, tardiness, and a common deadline. An integer program solution is presented for this irrigation scheduling problem. Two different models are presented to reflect different management options at the tertiary level. The first model allows jobs to be scheduled noncontiguously. In the second model only contiguous jobs are allowed. The second model has three submodels reflecting the various ways in which contiguous jobs can be scheduled over a fixed interval. Earlier work in determining unit costs of earliness/tardiness is reviewed and an alternative improved method is suggested. The models presented in this paper are applied to a tertiary unit with 16 users, both as a single interval and multi-interval irrigation scheduling problem. An alternative integer program is also presented which although computationally more efficient can only be used for single period scheduling problems. The models developed in this paper can be used to solve small scheduling problems and also to calibrate the heuristics as presented in the companion paper.     

Issues in brain injury evaluation and treatment.

For a variety of reasons, evaluating and treating patients with traumatic brain injury usually presents a series of special challenges. Researchers have helped explicate these challenges by providing information on the complex neurological, social, and psychological problems presented to many clinicians. Two cases are presented (a 22-yr-old male and a female with severe brain injuries) to enhance professionals' understanding of complexities in brain injury evaluation and treatment. Some common pitfalls in case management are described and presented along with information to enhance clinical efficacy. Sensitivity to the myriad of complicating issues can increase the likelihood of positive outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluation of a dynamical model of speech perception

Previous work (Tuller, Case, Ding, & Kelso, 1994) has revealed signature properties of nonlinear dynamical systems in how people categorize speech sounds. The data were modeled by using a two-well potential function that deformed with stimulus properties and was sensitive to context. Here we evaluate one prediction of the model--namely, that the rate of change of the potential's slope should increase when the category is repeatedly perceived. Judged goodness of category membership was used as an index of the slope of the potential. Stimuli from a "say"-"stay" continuum were presented with gap duration changing sequentially throughout the range from 0 to 76 to 0 msec, or from 76 to 0 to 76 msec. Subjects identified each token as either "say" or "stay" and rated how good an exemplar it was of the identified category. As predicted, the same physical stimulus presented at the end of a sequence was judged a better exemplar of the category than was the identical stimulus presented at the beginning of the sequence. In contrast, stimuli presented twice near the middle of a sequence with few (or no) stimuli between them, as well as stimuli presented with an intervening random set, showed no such differences. These results confirm the hypothesis of a context-sensitive dynamical representation underlying speech.     

Effects of ear of entry and perceived location of synchronous and asynchronous components on mistuning detection

Listeners were required to detect mistuning imposed on the center ("target") component of a 200-ms complex consisting of the first seven harmonics of a 500-Hz fundamental. In the standard interval of each 2IFC trial, all components were frequency modulated in-phase by a 5-Hz sinusoid. In the signal interval the frequency modulation of the target component was inverted in-phase, thereby introducing a mistuning proportional to the depth of FM. In a similar experiment, using monaural presentation, Carlyon [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 95, 2622-2630 (1994)] reported a substantial elevation of thresholds in the presence of an unmodulated asynchronous interferer with frequency identical to the mean frequency of the target. This was attributed to the interferer, causing the target component to be perceptually segregated from the remainder of the complex, thereby impairing across-frequency comparisons. Experiment 1 of the present study showed that an interferer presented contralaterally for 200 ms before and 100 ms after the signal complex (no simultaneous presentation) also impaired performance, but to a lesser extent than an ipsilaterally presented one. Experiment 2 showed that an interferer which was presented dichotically with an interaural level difference (ILD) of 10 dB, so that it was perceived contralaterally, had the same (large) effect as if it were presented ipsilaterally. Experiment 3 showed that, in the absence of any interferer, performance was impaired when the nontarget components were presented contralaterally to the target component. However, performance was not impaired when the nontarget components were presented dichotically with an ILD of 20 dB, so that they were perceived contralaterally to the target component. It is concluded that the level of performance in the mistuning task is determined by whether the target is presented to the same ear as the rest of the complex, rather than by its perceived location.     

Psychopathy and laterality of cerebral function.

Used a tachistoscopic recognition task to test the hypothesis that psychopathy is associated with dysfunction of the dominant hemisphere. 55 prison inmates were divided into groups with high, medium, and low ratings of psychopathy. Ss were required to identify 3-letter words presented in a vertical arrangement either in the left visual half field (LVF) or the right visual half field (RVF) 1.5° from a central fixation point. Each of 24 words was presented twice, once in each visual half field, at an exposure time of 80 msec. The exposure time was then shortened to 40 msec, and a 2nd set of 24 words was presented twice, once in each visual half field. In general, words presented in the RVF were more readily identified than those presented in the LVF. There was no evidence that psychopathy was associated with any deficit in RVF performance even when handedness and writing position were taken into account. Further, based on responses to a laterality questionnaire, there were no group differences in "left-sidedness." Results do not support the hypothesis of dominant hemisphere dysfunction in psychopathy. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cardiomyoplasty combined with implantation of a cardioverter defibrillator

Congenital absence of the scaphoid without associated thumb or radial hypoplasia is a rare condition. This report is the third case presented in the literature of this condition. The case presented is of a patient who presented initially with wrist pain. Radiographs revealed a congenitally absent scaphoid and examination revealed no evidence of thumb hypoplasia. A brief review of the literature on congenital absence of the scaphoid is discussed.     

Limit-State Surface Element Method: Application to Fatigue Reliability with NDE Inspections

A new method, named the limit-state surface element (LSSE) method, for problems in structural reliability is presented. The method is based on discretization of the limit-state surface into a finite number of elements. This allows for better representations of the failure surface in regions of high curvature than is possible with standard FORM techniques. The reliability is estimated as a sum of integrals over subdomains in the space of standard normal variables associated with the surface elements. Several benchmark problems are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and utility of the method, and a problem in fatigue reliability with NDE inspections is presented as a practical application of the method and a demonstration of the potential interrelations between QNDE and reliability assessment.     

Involvement of the retrosplenial cortex in processing multiple conditioned stimuli.

Lesions of retrosplenial cortex (RSP) disrupt spatial and contextual learning, suggesting that RSP may have a fundamental role in processing overlapping, or simultaneously presented stimuli. If so, then RSP lesions might also be expected to disrupt learning that requires the concurrent processing of phasic conditioned stimuli. In Experiment 1, rats were trained in a compound feature negative discrimination task in which a tone was presented and immediately followed by food on some trials, while on other trials a visual stimulus was simultaneously presented along with the tone and not reinforced. Normal rats learned to discriminate between the trials but RSP-lesioned rats exhibited low levels of conditioning on both types of trials. Experiment 2 demonstrated that this effect was not simply due to a general inability to form associations, since RSP-lesioned rats exhibited normal responding when the visual stimulus was presented alone and paired with food. These findings support the view that RSP has an important role in learning that involves the processing of simultaneously presented stimuli and have implications for understanding the functional relationship between the hippocampus and RSP. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)